My parents have been talking about their wills lately and its been very depressing. Two weeks after I had gotten off the road in September one of my friends lost a relative, the guy was in his mid-50's and was hit by a train, just all of a sudden. Another one of my friends has been talking religiously about when you are dead, you are dead and that's all. He's an atheist. The topic just keeps getting brought up!! I've been thinking about all this a lot and its been really depressing. I'm not sure what to do to stop thinking about it. Its really been on my mind. I'm trying hard to spend all the time I can with my parents and then my mother the other day told me that she didn't want me to go back on the road that she wanted me to stay close around here. *sigh* I've been burning to vent about this, there has just been so much on my mind lately, I'm feeling alone and don't know how to decipher it all. :icon_sad:
Death is as natural as it gets. Everyone dies and everything is impermanent. Once you can accept this fact, the more you can live. In life, there is only now; the past is gone and the future an illusion. If you live in the moment, death can have no hold on you.
I think it's important to realize that 'your number can come up' at any time. That makes living life in the moment a little easier to do. You don't know if you're going to be around tomorrow - none of us do. On the other hand, you can't dwell on that. You can't let that kind of fear control your life. You have to assume that you ARE going to be around tomorrow. Living any other way is unhealthy. Finally, it is just practical for your parents to have wills that are current. It's their responsibility as parents to ensure that their affairs are taken care of when they die. They can't control when they might die, but they can control whether or not they have a will in place. It just makes sense for them to do that. And it's great that they've talked to you about it. It shouldn't be a surprise to you as to what is in the will, despite what you might see on TV in murder mystery shows...
Thanks Jim. I've just been feeling relatively down about life all of a sudden. Ever since I went on the road and than got off the road. I haven't spent this much time with my parents since I left for college seven years ago. The only time I had was holidays and them coming to visit me on one of my weekends off from work. I'm trying to cherish this time, but its also made me think that maybe being so far from home isn't a good idea anymore, but I need to do what I need to do, life keeps moving. When I leave home to go back on the road it's going to be leaving for my first year of college all over again. Have others gone through this? Where you left home for awhile and than had to return back home?? I know I'm not alone in this feeling of thinking about my past and being on the pinnacle of a brand new future again. Besides weeks off here and there I don't think I'll ever have this much time with anyone around my old childhood playground.
>>>Where you left home for awhile and than had to return back home?? I did. My first "job away from home" was a wonderful gig in the middle of nowhere that paid nothing, so when the company folded, I ended up back at my parents place for awhile. None of us were overly pleased with the arrangement, but it was something we put up with until I could get another job and my own place. I can't say as I minded living apart from my parents that much. Yeah, I prefer living in the same area as they do, but when I'm apart, we called each other quite a bit. I didn't feel I had to be there. As my mother once said, "We raised you on the assumption that you'd be independent of us. It'd be disappointing if you weren't." Lex
I know it can be depressing. My parents go to Florida often and I know they'll eventually leave there permanently at some point or another, and whenever they are about to leave they remind me "if something happens to us, call this person and this person", etc. It's slightly depressing to hear but I know at the same time it's something necessary because I need to know what to do if something should happen. And like Lex said, independence is something everyone needs to learn, because sooner or later you're going to have to be independent.
